


Downtime

by Pairagoose



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Revelations, Sappy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-16
Updated: 2016-07-16
Packaged: 2018-07-24 09:16:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,158
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7502727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pairagoose/pseuds/Pairagoose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When the castle needs repairs (following ep Crystal Venom) they are forced to land on a secluded planet and while Keith and Lance are on patrol they discover their true feelings.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Downtime

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first time posting here, so hopefully I got it all right. Also my first time playing with the new version of Voltron, have a lot of old version ones around that I've never really posted anywhere. This is mostly a piece of sappy fluff, and facts known by Crystal Venom episode are included.  
> I don't have a beta reader or anything so sorry for any and all errors.

They had made it back through the wormhole after escaping the exploding star and everyone was starting to relax, all sure the situation of the ship trying to kill them was over when the whole castle began to vibrate, the engine whined as it struggled to stay powered up. The light flickered and dimmed before blinking out.

“Quiznak!” Coran cursed loudly before the dim glow of emergency lighting came on.

“Seems like HAL is not done trying to kill us after all.”Keith said with a scowl, his arms folded.

“Who’s HAL?” Allura asked looking confused.

“It’s an old movie reference. Keith’s just trying to be funny.” Shiro explained .

“Yeah, who knew the Mullet had a sense of humour.” Lance said.

“Shut up, Lance.” Keith glared at the blue paladin. 

“Oh c’mon guys back me up.” Lance pleaded with a grin as he looked around at everyone else. ‘It’s rather shocking isn’t it?”

“Lance…” Shiro started say, sounding both annoyed and exhausted.

“Yes?” Lance grinned, clearly expecting Shiro to whole heartedly agree with him.

“Shut up.” Shiro replied flatly.

Lance’s mouth dropped, clearly flabbergasted, but shut his mouth quickly and looked annoyed when he saw the smirk Keith was giving him. 

Coran cleared his throat. “I think there may have been more damage to the systems then we realized. We’ll have to find somewhere safe to land until we can make the necessary repairs.” 

“Is that safe?” Shiro asked.

“We can scan nearby planets and moons to find one that hasn’t been over thrown by the Galra.” Coran responded.

“Or perhaps we can find one that isn’t inhabited and yet has a safe atmosphere in case we need to leave the castle for any extended periods of time.” Allura suggested as she moved to the castle controls. The princess was saying a prayer, in her mind, that the necessary systems would work and that she would be able to get them someplace safe. 

There proved to be very few choices, the majority of celestial bodies that were even remotely close to their location had toxic atmosphere or volatile surfaces. Allura was just beginning to lose hope when Coran’s face lit up a grin.

“Ah ha!” Coran exclaimed with glee as he pointed out a very small planet on the star map. “Tardin has a perfect atmosphere and lacks sentient life.”

“Are you sure your information is correct?” Hunk asked, looking very worried as he recalled Coran’s inaccurate information regarding a planet on more than one occasion. 

“Of course I’m positive.” Coran looked insulted.”After all the don’t call me the…”

Before Coran could finish his statement Pidge interrupted him. “Are you sure the information is… well up to date?”

“Or are we gonna have to go out in the lions and kick some Galra ass?” Lance looked a little too excited by that idea. 

“I managed to do a scan of the planet and thankfully Coran is correct.” Allura said, putting an abrupt end to any further argument as she piloted the castle to towards Tardin.

They landed a lot harder on the planet’s surface than they had in the past causing everyone to stagger slightly in an desperate attempt to keep their foot, something that both Hunk and Lance failed at. Hunk toppled forward, ending up doing a belly flop on the floor which in turn caused Pidge to jump backwards, to avoid being squashed by the much larger man, flailing her arms for a moment to try to regain her balance before landing rather hard on her butt. Lance staggered and bumped into Keith causing both of them to go crashing to the floor, with Lance ending up laying on top of Keith.

“Get off me you idiot!” Keith yelled at Lance as he tried to shove him away. As Lance tried to get up and at the same time not be pushed around by Keith they somehow managed to become even more entangled with one another and it quickly turned into a very loud shouting match of just whose fault the predicament was. 

Meanwhile Pidge and Hunk became engrossed in a bickering match of their own. 

“You tried to squish me!” Pidge accused as she jumped back to her feet, adjusting her glasses as she glared at Hunk.

“No, I didn’t! It was an accident.” Hunk said defensively, but still looking a little ashamed about it as he got back to his feet.

“It sure looked like you were aiming for me.” Pidge said.

“Enough.” Shiro shouted in his best angry dad tone. “Look, I know everyone is still upset by recent events but all of you need to take a deep breath and calm down.” 

“Yeah, Keith and stop making out on the floor over there.” Hunk smirked slightly.

“Shut up!” Both Keith and Lance shouted in unison.

With a hard shove Keith was finally able to knock Lance away.

“Ow, that hurt you bastard!” Lance complained, over selling the pain in a little in a very obvious attempt for sympathy. 

“I didn’t shove you that hard, moron.” Keith growled as he got to his feet. “Stop faking it before I give you something to actually complain about.” He threatened as he took a menacing step towards Lance. 

Shiro was about to scold both of them, yet again, when a soft noise from Allura’s direction drew his attention towards the princess. “Princess!” He shouted in alarm rushing to catch her before she could hit the floor. Her body was limp but her breathing was slow and steady as he gently cradled her in his arms. 

“Allura.” Coran called out in worry, hurrying over and crouching down beside Shiro and leaning in to check on the princess. 

Lance, Hunk and Pidge all hurried to crowd around while Keith chose to stay where he was and watch from afar, it wasn’t that he wasn’t worried he merely figured crowding around the princess wouldn’t accomplish anything. 

“I think she has merely fainted.” Shiro explained.

“She hadn’t fully recovered from using so much energy to heal the Balmera, when everything starting happening as a result of that poisonous crystal… and then losing her father’s AI…” Coran said sadly, lightly stroking the princess’s head in a caring fashion. “It must have simply been too much for her.” 

“Should we put her in one of those healing pods?” Hunk suggested.

“Are you kidding me? One of those things just tried to kill me. It might not be safe yet.” Lance pointed out.

“I think all she needs is a little more rest.” Shiro said.

“Agreed.” Coran nodded. “Besides its best not to draw too much power from the system until we get some repairs done.” 

“I can help get her into bed.” Lance suggested with a huge grin.

“We want her to sleep peacefully, not have nightmares.” Keith said, making Lance glare at him.

“I will help Coran take her to her room and make her comfortable.” Shiro carefully picked Allura up, holding her close. “Hopefully the four of you can manage to stay out of trouble until I get back.”

“I’ll make sure the three of them behave.” Lance assured Shiro.

“You?” Keith scoffed. “You’re the worst offender.”

“Me?” Lance looked indignant. “You’re worse than me.” This led to a close, face to face glaring contest.

Shiro cleared his throat and was about to say something, put Pidge spoke up first. “I’ll do my best to keep them in line.”

“Good luck with that.” Shiro sighed before walking off with Coran. 

Shiro doubted he had even been gone for twenty minutes, it hadn’t taken long to get the princess to her room and afterwards Coarn insisted that he stand watch , just outside the door, while Shiro go back and aid the paladins with the clean up and repairs. He had almost made it back to the control room, when a thunderous crash, from the control room, echoed down the corridor followed by several loud shouts. 

“This is your fault. If you weren’t a drop-out maybe you’d be smart enough to know that was exactly what would have happened!” Lance shouted.

“Firstly that was entirely your fault, not mine. And secondly you’re also a drop out. All three of you essentially dropped out of the academy” Keith shot back. 

Shiro could feel his temple began to throb with a headache and thought about merely turning around and going the other way and just let those two fight it out but decided that wouldn’t be fair to Hunk and Pidge so he quickened his pace towards the control room. 

“I did not drop out!” Lance said defensively.

“Um, actually Keith does have a point.” Hunk said.

“Don’t go taking his side.” Lance shouted at Hunk.

“He’s at least smart enough to know the truth when he hears it.” Keith smirked.

“Yeah well… well… you flunked out!” Lance said smugly. grinning in presumed triumph.

“Only because it was impossible to get a passing grade after I broke that moron instructor’s nose.” Keith scowled.

“None of which matters.” Shiro said, stepping into the room and surveying the damage. A large piece of equipment was laying smashed on the floor, at quick glance he assumed it had somehow fallen from the ceiling and he doubted that he wanted to know just how that happen. 

“It was his fault!” Both Keith and Lance shouted at the same time as they glared at one another. 

“Actually...” Pidge looked up from her laptop that was currently plugged in and assess some of the castle’s systems. “They are both at fault.” 

Shiro sighed, rubbing his temples with his real hand. “I doubt I want to know. 

“Well at least it wasn’t the castle trying to kill us again.” Hunk said with a grin. 

“You had it easy you just had food goo shot at you. That’s not like almost being frozen or blasted out into space.” Lance pointed out.

“Yeah, and floating around in zero gravity is nothing compared to having a robot trying to make mincemeat out of you.” Keith added. 

Shiro couldn’t help but sigh, yet again. It was rather amusing how well Keith and Lance could work together in dire situations and how well they got a long when they weren’t bickering like an old married couple or kids with a school yard crush. That last thought gave him pause and he glance back and forth between Keith and Lance, their problem couldn’t be so grade school could it?

“Well it tried to launch all of us into an exploding star.” Hunk growled.

“So, that’s three for me.” Lance smirked. “I win.”

“Well, congratulations.” Keith rolled his eyes.

“Darn right.” Lance said, holding himself up a little straighter and looking quite smug.

“Just remember I was the one who saved your ass from being sucked out into space.” Keith smirked.

“Oh… yeah.” Lance dropped slightly but only for a moment. “But that also got rid of your killer robot.”

“So?” Keith questioned.

“You only did it to solve your own, problem, didn’t you?” Lance accused.

“More like killed two birds with one stone.” Keith replied with a shrugged. 

“For now let’s just focus on the repairs.” Shiro said in a firm tone, for the sake of his throbbing head he hoped to put an end to the current bickering. 

“Without causing more damage.” Pidge stared accusingly at Keith and Lance. 

“Not my fault.” Lance desperately tried to plead his case even though he knew nobody believed him.

“We need to make sure that we actually are located in a secure position before worrying about repairs.” Keith protested. 

“You may have a point.” Shiro agreed. 

“I can do a perimeter patrol.” Keith quickly offered. Computers weren’t his forte and he didn’t want to be stuck on clean up duty. 

“On one condition, Lance will be going with you.” Shiro said.

“What? Why?” Keith grumbled.

“Safety in numbers.” Shiro grinned slightly. He doubted there was any real threat it was more that getting them both out of the castle for a while would give the rest of them some peace and quiet which might actually allow them to accomplish something. 

Keith wanted to protest. To tell Shiro that he was more than capable of taking care of himself. Although he wasn’t sure exactly what happened when Shiro was alone with Sendak he could tell it left the older paladin tired and drained and he didn’t want to add to Shiro’s stress. “Fine. I’ll take Lance with me.”

Lance would have protested but truthfully he was looking forward to getting out of the castle and avoiding the hard work, if only for a while, and was worried if he protested Shiro would change his mind and send someone else with Keith. 

“We need food. Maybe I should go with them and see if I can find anything edible.” Hunk suggested.

“I think they can manage to do that while they are on patrol.” Shiro said.

“Magic mushrooms are edible, right?” Lance grinned.

Keith coughed slightly to hide his grin and keep from laughing.

“Are you kidding me?” Hunk looked flabbergasted and truly terrified of what they may bring back for food.

“I’m sure he was joking.” Shiro looked at Lance then sighed. “To be safe don’t bring back any mushrooms.”

“I’ll just make him taste test everything. If it kills him, it kills him. If he starts to hallucinate, I kill him.” Keith said in a perfectly calm tone. 

“That’s so cruel.” Lance overly exaggeratedly laid a hand over his heart. “I thought we bonded. I thought you loved me.” Giving his best kicked dog look. 

“How about I just kill you now?” Keith suggested with a sigh.

“I think I changed my mind. About going anywhere with them.” Even Hunk was clearly disappointed. He would have loved to go out and see what great foods this new planet had to offer it would be anything but a peaceful experience with those two along. 

“I think that’s a good idea. I think even if the castle does try to kill us again you’re safer in here.” Pidge said.

“Buuuurn.” Hunk grinned.

“Let’s go and set this all up.” Shiro said quickly before Keith or Lance could retaliate to that last insult. 

“Yes, sir.” Keith said. 

“Right.” Lance nodded before he and Keith followed Shiro out of the room

 

There was a long debate on whether they should take a lion or a shuttle, which of course lead to an argument about who should be the one flying. Shiro quickly ended the debate by telling them he expected them to do the patrol on foot. Shiro was relieved when the debate over attire was quickly resolved, both opting to wear their normal clothes opposed to their paladin suits. Both men were equipped with their bayards and communication devices, though Lance insisted on being the one to carry the supply satchel, clearly thinking doing so gave him more power on their little expedition 

Once they were outside, and saw they beauty the planet had to offer, they were glad that Shiro had talked them into it going on foot. The sky was blue and the clouds were white but that’s were any similarity to Earth ended. The ship had landed in a large meadow with knee high dark violet purple grass. There were a few tall trees, with black bark with branches that twisted in every direction and were covered with silver leaves, scattered throughout the meadow, but only a couple of the trees were anywhere close to their location.

Keith smiled as he took a deep breath through his nose enjoying the scent of the fresh, clean air that had never been tarnished by pollution. Then he noticed Lance staring at him odd look. “What?” 

“Nothing.” Lance replied, almost a little too quickly as he turned his head to hid a blush. He wasn’t about to admit that he thought Keith was rather cute when he smiled, and it wasn’t the first time he had caught him thinking such a thought. “Hey, how far do you think that forest is?” He asked pointing to the northern horizon.

Keith looked in the direction Lance was pointing, quickly assessing the distance. “Probably an hour or so on foot.” 

“It’s a nice day for a walk, should we head that way? Or I can raise my finger, spin around with my eyes closed and then randomly stop and whatever way I’m pointing is the direction we’ll go?” Lance suggested with a big grin.

“Did you eat a mushroom when I wasn’t looking?” Keith looked at Lance as though he had gone insane.

“It just feels great to be out of that killer castle.”

“True.” Keith agreed. “But your idea is still stupid.” 

“Fine.” Lance gave a dramatic sigh.”Alright we’ll go with your whole mojo thing for sensing stuff… or whatever you wanna call it.” 

“That’s a much better idea.” Keith smirked.

“I figured you’d like it.” Lance walked over and slung an arm over Keith’s shoulder. “So, great one which way do you think we should go?”

Keith knew he probably should shove Lance away but it felt a little too comfortable to have Lance that close, so he stood still and thought about what way they should go. After a moment he pointed. “Let’s head west.” 

“Why west?” Lance asked, squinting to see if he could spy something that made Keith chose that direction. 

“The grass looks to get shorter in that direction so the terrain probably changes which may give us a decent chance to find something other than grass and fruitless trees.” Keith said. 

“Sound reasonable.” Lance grinned and pulled away from Keith. “Let’s do it.”

As the grass grew shorter they could see the dirt was blue and soon the grass became sparse and they could see hint of stone showing through the dirt. The stone looked similar to a rainbow quartz the dark shades shimmered and changed colour all depending what way they looked at it and how the sun was hitting it. 

“Wow.” Lance squatted down to examine one of the stones, poking at it a couple times to see if he could get it to move. “Maybe we could find a few smaller pieces to take back to the castle.” He glanced around but could see anything that looked like small loose stones. 

“Why would you want to do that?” Keith asked.

“They might be magic like the Balmera.” Lance suggested as he stood back up. “Or we could just make pendants or something cool out of it.” 

“Coran would have mentioned if there were mystical stones on this planet.” Keith pointed out. 

“Oh, yeah I guess he would have.” Lance said looking a little crest fallen.

“But maybe we can find a few smaller pieces that could be used for other purposes.” Keith said. For some reason he felt the need to cheer Lance up. 

Lance grinned, obviously quite happy with Keith’s response. He opened his mouth to say something then paused and seemed to think for a moment.”Hey, do you hear what sounds like waves, too?”

Keith thought for a moment. “Yeah. I supposed it does sort of sounds like it waves.”

“Do you think it’s an ocean?” Lance asked hopefully. 

“Anything’s possible.” Keith said.

“Let’s find out.” Lance reached out and grabbed Keith’s hand and took them at a run towards the sound of the waves. 

Keith was shocked when Lance grabbed his hand and normally he would have pulled away in an instant and probably make a snarky comment, especially if someone else was around to see it, but maybe it was this place or the fact that they were alone which led to Keith allowing Lance to lead him to what they were assuming to be water. 

After racing to the top of a hill they were met with a breath taking sight, a vast body of sparkling water. There were large stones, some small and barely above the water and others were several hundred feet tall, all carved by the water over countless years giving each one its own unique shape, but these stone were in hues of red and orange that made them almost look like fire as they shimmered in the sun. The water appeared multi coloured but since it changed with the waves they assumed the water was clear and picking up the colours of the stone both above and below the water. 

“Wow.” Lance said in awe, slowing his pace and coming to a stop on the edge of the embankment.

“Yeah.” Keith agreed as he came to a stop beside Lance. 

Lance suddenly realized that he was holding Keith’s hand and quickly let go and turned to hide a blush, wondered why Keith had ever allowed him to get away with it for so long, and hadn’t punched him for it. 

Keith was surprised that he felt so disappointed at the loss of contact. “It’s probably only ten feet down to the beach, we could go down and investigate.” 

Lance peered over the edge, and down to a narrow white sand beach that was strewn with a rainbow of colours, no doubt from crushed remains of the stones. “Looks easy enough, there’s lots of foot and hand holds.”

Keith just nodded and started to make his way down the embankment, followed closely by Lance. 

Keith looked up and down the beach as he waited for Lance to catch up the beach stretched for as far as the eye could see, and the embankment was lot higher in some places, and there was no way they’d have made it down some of those towering cliffs. Although there were bigger waves coming in much further down the shore the biggest waves in this area seemed to be breaking quite a ways out in the water, probably on rocks or maybe even a sand bar, so by the time they reached this part of the shore they were merely coming in with a gentle lapping motioning. 

“Wow.” Lance said as he looked around.

“You already said that.” Keith chuckled.

“Yeah… but…” Lance flapped his hands around motioning randomly to everything around them.

“Hard to articulate how beautiful it is, ain’t it?” Keith smiled.

Lance grinned and nodded. “Exactly.” Once again finding himself thinking how beautiful Keith was when he smiled. He quickly tried to shake the thought from his mind. “Think the water is safe?” He asked as he approached the water’s edge. 

“Hard to say, so be careful.” Keith said.

“I’m always careful.” Lance smirked as he squatted down just short of water, hoping to myself that a big wave didn’t make it by and soak him before they knew if the water was safe to touch. He pulled a little test strip out of the satchel, and stretched to get it wet, before pulling it back. “Pure and clean, just like the air. Maybe we should go swimming” Lance suggested with a huge grin.

“We don’t have swim trunks.” Keith pointed out.

“We could always go skinny…” Lance started to say but never had a chance to finish his sentence before Keith interrupted. 

“Don’t even say it.” Keith almost shouted, hoping his cheeks hadn’t turned too red. He coughed tried to hide his embarrassment. “Who knows what sort of creatures live in that water there could be sharks or krakens.” 

“Krakens?” Lance chuckled, but was smiling.

“Never know with this world.” Keith pointed out, his arms folded across his chest, almost seeming to pout that Lance had just made fun of him. 

Grinning Lance stepped over closer to Keith so that they were only a few inches apart, he had intended to tease the shorter man, but paused when he noticed just how long Keith’s dark lashes were and how his deep blue eyes had a tinge of purple reminding Lance of a dark stormy sky.

“What?” Keith asked, he could feel his heart begin to beat faster and he suddenly felt nervous to have Lance so close to him and looking at him so intently.

For a moment Lance couldn’t think of anything to say, so he just said the first thing that popped into his head. “You shouldn’t pout, you’re face might stick that way.” 

“I’m not pouting.” Keith scowled before backing away from Lance and sitting down on the beach. The sand and stones were so finely ground and smooth to the touch and Keith dug his fingers in, enjoying the sensation for a moment. 

Lance stayed where he was for a moment debating going back to the water’s edge, perhaps taking his shoes off and getting his feet wet or sitting on the beach with Keith. After much debate he choose to sit down beside Keith, pulling off the satchel and dropping it to one side. 

They had been sitting for several long minutes, enjoying a surprisingly comfortable silence, before Lance said deeply as he stared out wistfully at the water.

“Problem?” Keith asked. Even though he wasn’t very good at dealing with people, in almost any given situation, and most social situations made him feel awkward and uneasy he could tell that Lance sounded like he needed someone to talk to. 

“This place just reminds me so much of home that it makes me a little homesick.” Lance sighed again. “And it got me thinking that you were right before.”

“Of course I was right.” Keith smirked, getting a small chuckle from Lance. “Um, about what?”

“About Pidge, Hunk and me all being drop outs. Not just that, we’re probably all on a missing persons or wanted fugitive list and that my family is going no doubt going crazy worrying about me. Ya know what I mean?”

“Not really.” 

“Really?” Lance was obviously surprised by the answer. “What about your family? Don’t you think their missing you and all that?”

“I’m an orphan, my family is dead.” Keith said.

The very matter-of-fact tone Keith used when saying that took Lance by surprise and it took his brain a moment to process a response. “Oh… sorry. I didn’t know.”

“I was quite young at the time. Too young to be on my own and too old to be adoptable. None of the foster homes and especially not the orphanage very felt like family.” 

“Oh…” Lance wanted to comfort Keith, even if Keith sounded just like he was talking about the weather and not his tragic childhood, but he really didn’t know what he should say or do and figured Keith would punch him if he tried to hug him Lance did the only thing he could think, he quietly reached over and took hold of Keith’s hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. 

Keith was shocked when Lance squeezed his hand but found the simple contact was quite comforting so he didn’t pull away. Lately he had been increasingly comfortable around Lance, even when they were fighting, and now he was finding himself enjoying all the small moments of simple contact that he and Lance were sharing and it was confusing the hell out of him. 

“So, back the point of us all being drop outs... exactly whose nose did you break?” Lance asked.

“General Dickface.” Keith scowled as he thought about that man.

“Wha…?” Lance looked a little confused. “You mean Dickerson?” 

“Yeah. I suppose that is his actual name.” Keith shrugged.

“Okay… so why did you break his nose?” Lance asked.

“He was going on and on about the Kerberos mission failing because of pilot error… Shiro’s error and how Shiro wasn’t as great as everyone seemed to think. He wouldn’t shut up so I slammed my fist into his nose and made him shut his mouth.”

Lance could easily picture Keith having done, probably with a grumpy scowl on his face the whole time. He sort of knew that Keith and Shiro had known each other before the big rescue but hadn’t realized they were so close that Keith was willing to risk getting expelled from the garrison because of one person’s nasty comment about Shiro. “So… you and Shiro must have been close before?” 

“Yeah.” 

“Um… how close?” Lance asked. For some reason he was little nervous about what answer Keith might give. 

“He sort of became like a big brother.” Keith said.

Lance breathed a slight sigh of relief. “How’d that happen? Through the school?”

“It was back when I was still in the system. Though I guess it was sort of through the school that Shiro got involved with one of those big brother and sister organizations, community services builds better leaders or some such crap theory some idiot thought up. I didn’t want any part of it and was trying to hotwire a bike to take off on when Shiro caught me.” Keith smiled slightly at the memory. 

“I’m guessing that he didn’t turn your sorry ass in.” Lance grinned. 

“Good guess.” Keith chuckled. “He told me if I wanted to go riding we could take his bike and go out to the flats where he’d actually let me race it.”

“Never would have thought Shiro would be that crazy. Didn’t he figure you’d try and steal his bike?” Lance asked.

“He claimed he had a good anti-theft feature and could just remotely stop it if I tried driving off with it. Never did test the claim. Probably because after the first few laps he told me I was pretty good at it and that he had an old bike that if I helped fix it that it would be mine, obviously that turned out pretty damn good.” Keith grinned.

“Obviously?” Lance looked confused for a moment then a light bulb seemed to go off over his head. “Oh! The bike you were using that night.”

“One in the same.” Keith nodded. 

“Cool.” Lance grinned. “That was a pretty sweet hover bike.” 

“Yeah.” Keith agreed. He wondered how they had gone from talking about Lance feeling homesick to talking about his past. He seldom talked about his past to anyone, in fact he usually hated talking about himself at all, but with Lance it had just felt so easy and natural.

“So, are you sure you don’t want to go swimming?” Lance asked, figuring they needed a change of subject to lighten the mood. 

“I am not going skinny dipping with you.” Keith said firmly.

“We could just wear our underwear, or are you not wearing anything under those tight pants?” Lance asked with a slightly devilish grin making Keith turn a dark shade of red.

“That’s…. that’s none of your business.” Keith stammered slightly.

“So, maybe the truth is you can’t swim.” Lance suggested, still grinning broadly. 

“I can swim just fine.” 

“Only just fine? Does that mean not very well?” Lance was smirking.

“Shut up.” Keith said as he gave Lance a more playful than normal shove. “If you want to risk being eaten by whatever may be lurking in that water go ahead, but you’re on your own.”

“You’re mean.” Lance pretended to pout.

“Perhaps.” Keith agreed, with a small smile pulling on the corners of his lips. “But in this case I’m just being logical.” 

Lance sighed dramatically, slumping his shoulders and hanging his head for added effect. “I hate when you’re right.” 

“Would you stop pouting if I said we could take our shoes off and walk along the water’s edge?” Keith asked.

Lance suddenly perked up. “That’s the best idea you’ve had all day, let’s do it.”

“I’m gonna regret this, aren’t I?” Keith groaned.

“Probably.” Lance grinned as he quickly went to work on removing his shoes and socks.

Keith had barely started on removing his second boot when Lance already had both shoes and socks off and his pant cuffs rolled up and had hopped up to his feet.

“You’re slow.” Lance sighed. 

“My boots take longer to remove than your dumb shoes.” Keith scowled at Lance. 

“My shoes aren’t dumb. My shoes are fashionable. It’s your boots that are dumb.” Lance shot back. “I mean they take so long to get off and look like… gogo boots.” 

Keith stopped what he was doing and glared up at Lance. “Do you want me to change my mind?” He threatened with a growl.

“No.” Lance quickly shook his head. ‘What I meant to say is… um... they are very nice boots that look great on you... or well in this case off.” 

Keith snorted and went back to removing his boot. A few moments later his both boots and socks were off, but his pant cuffs were too tight to roll up the way Lance had so he just had to risk getting the cuffs wet. 

“Finally.” Lance sighed, before offering Keith a hand to help him stand. 

Lance pulled him up a little faster than he was expecting case Keith to nearly lose his foot and bump into Lance. For a brief moment they stood there, their bodies press together, staring directly into each other’s eyes both seeming to forget how to breathe. Lance couldn’t resist leaning his forward those last few inches so that he could capture Keith’s with a kiss. 

Keith took a sharp breath through his nose, he put a hand on Lance’s shoulder intending to push him away but instead his hand gripped Lance’s shoulder and he closed his eyes enjoying the warmth and the almost overwhelming sensations that were bubbling up inside of him. 

Lance wanted to hold the kiss forever, it felt so perfect, so right and as cliché as it may sound it felt one of those kisses in the fairy tales his little sisters always had wanted him to read to them. But, the need for air finally made him pull back. 

“What… what… was that for?” Keith asked, staring at Lance and panting slightly. 

“Umm…” Lance suddenly started to panic as it occurred to him that despite the fact Keith kissed back and hadn’t slugged him for it that he may not have found it as enjoyable as he had. “I never properly thanked you for saving my life.”

“And that’s how you thank people?” Keith raised an eyebrow.

“Well, no… at least not normally. But…” Lance stammered.

“I wouldn’t mind if that’s how you always chose to thank me in the future.” Keith said quietly.

“Really?” Lance asked, his eyes lighting up.

“It was... nice.” Keith nodded and blushed slightly.

“Can I do it for other reason? Any reason that I’d like?” Lance asked hopefully. 

“On one condition.” Keith said.

“What would that be?” 

“That I get the same privilege.” Keith replied with a small grin. 

“Only when I don’t beat you to it.” Lance smirked, letting go of Keith’s hand a and wrapped an arm around the smaller man’s waist and holding him close as he moved in for a kiss. 

Keith wove his fingers into Lance’s thick brown hair wanting to hold the kiss for as long as possible, but just like last time the need for air caused them to part. 

“So, does this mean we’re dating... or whatever?” Keith asked. He had never been kissed before today, let alone been in a relationship, not that he’d ever even considered being involved with anyone. 

“Is that what you want it to mean?” Lance asked, not saying out loud just how cute Keith looked when he was a little unsure, he reached out to lightly caress Keith’s cheek as he waited for an answer. 

Keith couldn’t help but lean into the touch as he carefully debated his response. There were so many things that could go horribly wrong, but Lance’s touch felt so right and it left him feeling confused and truthfully a little afraid. 

“It’s overwhelming when you stop and think about it, isn’t it?” Lance asked. He wondered if Keith’s heart was racing was fast his own. Lance smiled when Keith nodded slightly. “We can take it slowly. “ He suggested. 

“We probably should.” Keith agreed. 

“Can we also agree that this is our first date?” Lance grinned.

“Idiot.” Keith chuckled. 

“What? A walk on the beach is a perfect first date, kitten.” Lance defended himself. 

“Kitten?”Keith questioned, somehow looking both annoyed and amused at the same time. 

“It fits you.” Lance smiled. Deciding to just take Keith’s hand and lead him to the edge of the water before Keith could decide to retaliate over the pet name, not that he didn’t plan on using it again in the future.

Lance walked on the water side as they walked hand in hand down the beach, with the cool water lapping over their feet. They barely spoke, but it was a comfortable silence that made Keith agree with Lance’s comment about this being a pretty decent first date. They had only managed to walk for twenty minutes before the shoreline changed and the water reached to the rocky cliff leaving them with no beach to walk on, making them turn and head back, though they did find a few good pieces of the stones, including ones like the one that were out in the water, for Lance to pocket.

Lance had his shoes back on long before Keith could finish with his boots, he stayed sitting on the ground facing Keith and playing with one of the stones he had picked up. “What are we gonna tell the others?”

“I don’t think anyone else needs to know. At least not yet.” Keith said. 

Lance nodded in agreement. It did make sense since they had yet to label for what was going on between them. But he was wasn’t sure he could pull off the same sort of bickering as they had done in the past and he certainly didn’t want to keep flirting with anyone else. But the thought of sneaking around with Keith behind everyone’s back also seemed a little thrilling. 

Keith had just finished putting his boots back on when the communicator chirped. Keith pulled it out of his pocket and pressed a couple of the buttons to create an open communication line. “Yeah. what?” He questioned gruffly. 

For a moment there was a lot of static, but final Shiro’s voice came over the line. “Keith. Are you both alright? We’ve been trying to reach you but communications have been offline.”

“I’m fine. As for Lance… I just finished burying the body.” 

“What?” Hunk bellowed from somewhere behind Shiro. “Are you serious?” He sounded unsure of whether to believe Keith or not. 

“Totally serious.” Keith said with a smirk.

“Keith…” Shiro sighed deeply.

“But… but… how why…” Hunk was stammering.

“Suffocation.” Keith grinned at Lance who was having to cover his mouth to keep from breaking out in laughter. 

Hunk was stammering incoherently and Shiro just sighed deeply. “He’s clearly joking. If Lance is there…” 

Shiro sounded a little irritated so Lance decided to speak. “Yeah, I’m not that easy to kill.” 

“That’s not funny!” Hunk yelled.

“It was on this end.” Lance chuckled.

“Idiots… both of them.” Hunk grumbled and they could hear his heavy footsteps as he stormed off.

“Truthfully, are you both fine?” Shiro asked.

“Yeah. This place is rather peaceful.” Keith said.

“We may have found the reason for that. Just a few details that Coran failed to mention.” Shiro said.

“That sounds rather ominous.” Keith said.

“It’s not that bad. Well considering neither of you killed the other I’d say it’s just fine.” Shiro chuckled.

“Out with it.” Keith growled. 

“Prolonged exposure to Tardin’s atmosphere causes all life forms to become so relaxed that they act upon any hidden desires they may have.” Shiro explained. 

“So that’s why Hunk thought Keith was serious.” Lance said.

“We had been laying odds on who would have killed who first.” Shiro laughed. “So, it’s all good?” Shiro was clearly fishing for information.

“Yeah, I don’t think it had any effect on us since we both tend to act on what we’re feeling when it comes to each other.” Keith lied. 

“Hmm…” Shiro clearly wasn’t buying it but after a sigh Keith could tell the older man was going to drop the issue, for now. “Alright, just head back to the ship and fill us in on what you found.

“You got it.” Keith said. 

The communicator crackled and then went silent and Keith turned it off and stuck back in his pocket. 

“So…” Keith started but found he really didn’t want to ask if Lance thought everything that happened between them was just a result of the weird air on this alien planet and that once they were back on the ship Lance would completely change his mind and go back to thinking of him as nothing more than an arch rival. “I guess we should start heading back.” He finished as he stood up.

Keith didn’t have to ask, Lance could see the question in Keith’s eyes. He smiled as he stood up, quickly wrapping an arm around Keith waist and pulling him close, laying his other hand against Keith’s cheek and lightly tipping Keith’s head so he could look directly into his eyes. “Shiro said it causes people to act on their desires, not create false desire, so nothing will change when we leave this place.” 

“When did you get to be the smart one?” Keith frowned. He hated how logical and how right Lance sounded. 

“I guess we finally found something I’m better than you at.” Lance smirked. “And, damn I’m going to have a hell of a good time teaching you all about it.” 

“That could be interesting.” Keith blushed slightly. 

Lance smiled, he could tell Keith had relaxed slightly but there was still a lot of worry in those stormy blue eyes. “I won’t leave you.” He promised.

Keith wanted to reply but couldn’t. Everyone who had ever cared about him had left. Granted Shiro had returned but he was no longer the same man he had been before and though Keith completely understood why he still missed that close bond they had once shared. And having been plunged into the middle of a war such a promise could be rather difficult for anyone to keep. 

Lance wished there was something he could say to remove Keith’s doubts and ease his fears but knew it would take time to heal some of those old wounds so he did the one thing he could think of, he leaned in and kissed Keith. 

Closing his eyes Keith wrapped his arms around Lance and leaned into the warm embrace. It was easy to get lost in Lance’s kisses and it made his heart scream to believe all of Lance’s promises. Keith knew once the kiss ended they would have to head back before Shiro sent out a search party and the others caught them making out on the beach. But right now that didn’t matter as he told himself to stop worrying about the what if’s and tomorrow’s possibilities and just enjoy this budding romance.


End file.
